billy ekstien anyone?

[tamla617]

i was up a ladder today,i had tcms vol6 going and if the alternate versions dont get up my nose hearing [[nearly) the same thing again.billy eckstien came on i couldnt get down to fast fwd nearly killed me for 5/6 mins.
does anyone like our billy,bought his anthology/motown collection? i cant listen to any of his music.
i'm not critical of people liking it,just interested to see how popular he is on here

[copley]

Well I bought his Motown Anthology when it was issued, played it once & haven't seen it since! Need I say more!

[robb_k]

I like his [[at least Billy Eckstine's) version of "Thank You Love". "For Love of Ivy" was okay. I best he was out of place at Stax, more than at Motown. I like a lot of his MGM ballads. he has one great voice.

His Motown stuff was better than Irene Ryan's, and a lot of Al Klein's novelty garbage. "Randy The Newspaper Boy". Better than Hank & Carol Diamond.

[copley]

Now oddly enough I liked Irene Ryan's 'Pippin' songs.

[radionixon]

Mr B's fate at Motown was similar to that suffered by Barbara McNair - as a "prestige" crossover signing, he was only given the dullest MOR slop to record. Unlike McNair, there doesn't seem to be a secret cache of him doing stronger material; nearly all his Motown records are in the same bag, standards and dreary ballads, very jarring when placed right next to storming mid-Sixties Motown hits.

Ironically, he'd recorded a fair few listenable records in the Forties, when his career as a bandleader made him one of the biggest names in bebop and an unlikely influence on the future of jazz [[Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Art Blakey and Dexter Gordon all spent time cutting their teeth in his band, for instance, along with a young Miles Davis no less), and while many of his vocal ballads and renditions of standards are pretty unappealing today, there was a time when they couldn't be got onto record store shelves fast enough - and as a genuine million-selling black artist, Eckstine's star wattage was very important in smashing down a few racial barriers in the music and showbiz industries.

Mr B's Motown tenure was probably more about the prestige and symbolism of having him signed to the label than an expectation that he'd sell millions of records again; most of his Motown stuff I find a struggle to listen to, to be honest.

Except one.



Which [[a) rocks my world, and [[b) is enough, frankly, to excuse a HUNDRED tedious crooner standards.

[pj1]

I think he did a fine job on 'The Love Line'.

[theboyfromxtown]

I like it a lot....but it's more about the Motown Sound, if I'm honest.

[workshop_jazz]

LOVE Billy Eckstine's voice and early material; his Motown stuff not so much, unfortunately. I have several of his 78s. He suffered the same fate as folks like Jonah Jones - really substandard material considering the talent.

[honest man]

love some of billy's motown tracks I WISH YOU WERE HERE2 THERE YOU WHERE 3 ANYONE GOING MY WAY 4 IT'S ALL IN THE GAME ,so much great stuff, love these songs , and many more from his motown stint, actually going to play his motown anthology cd right now, cheers

[keith_hughes]

I didn't care about him much one way or the other till the Motown Anthology set came out, then I started listening more carefully.

I think that the thing that puts me off his Motown recordings the most is the arrangements. Many of them are very dated, as if the writers were consciously trying to replicate the arrangements of 10-20 years earlier, and they sound way too "sweet" for my ears.

But the voice and the technique are out of this world. One of the greats - "in the prime of his life" ...

[snakepit]

I too enjoy some of his Motown cuts, particularly "Is anyone here going my way","Thank you love", "loveline","Down to earth", "I wonder why" [[ which was a big Northern souns for a while), "Fantasy".
Like Honest Man, I might dig his anthology out for a spin. cheers

[144man]

I only really enjoy the songs mentioned above plus the Smokey Robinson composed "The Answer is Love".

[ralpht]

Are you guys too young to remember the very cool Mr. B shirts that were fasionable in the early 50's?

[robb_k]

I forgot that I like "And There You Were" very much, in addition to "Thank You Love".

[rta5225]

Didn't they call him "Mr. B"? My older sister LOVES him. I remember I went with her to see him in concert years ago. I think her favorite song was "Cottage For Sale."

[workshop_jazz]

Are you guys too young to remember the very cool Mr. B shirts that were fasionable in the early 50's?

I know them only from reading a ton of stuff about him - I was born in '72!

[blkfrost]

My favorite Motown release by Billy Eckstine is "Had You Been Around".

[tomato tom]

I dug out my Prime Of My Life & My Way albums, and the Anthology C.D. Sorry, but I had to keep stoppin and skipping, to find anything I could get through. I KNOW he was is a VERY important artist in Black Musics long and glorious history, BUT, can I just say, the little is better than the whole. SORRY!! Just my POV. P.S. I know some people will kill me for this, but I CANNOT sit through a whole Smokey Robinson album. His voice just grates on me after a while. He either sings Brilliantly on a fantastic song, or whines on on and on....Sorry.Just my Point of view.....Paulo XXX

[robb_k]

I'll admit that Mr. B. didn't get much really good material at Motown. I don't think his style fit the Motown Sound too well [[at least what his many fans wanted to hear). As we heard on "Thank You Love" and his Bluesy songs, he could sing well in any style. But, like anyone, he had to be inspired. I just think the MOR fans saw the Motown label, and didn't think they'd like the stuff, and The Motown fans wanted him to sing like Junior Walker, or, at least, Levi Stubbs. I don't understand why he signed with Stax. It was the same situation, only perhaps even less of a fit.

I don't really like any of the Barbara McNair cuts. She used too poppish a style even on her least poppish vocal at Motown. That's the music style she learned, trained in and felt most comfortable in. But, it would have been nicer for me, if she would have sung her Motown songs in a more "Motownish" style.

[tomato tom]

Robb..I agree to disagree, to a point. Barbara was an established MOR /JAZZ singer, and, lets be honest, her Motown material was all over the place, covering too many genres to be aimed at any one market. And back then, you aimed your material to that market. Of course, MOTOWN was trying to break that, by signing Billy and Barbara et al. Well, we all know, the sales didnt happen. BUT, they both made some pretty damn fine sides.. It covered too many bases. or maybe many segregated radio stations that were only POP.JAZZ. R & B etc only,that would not change their format.[[Advertisement income ) Like the Supremes, Four Tops etc albums Funny Girl, On Broadway ect that flopped., AND of course the Civil Rights movement. Things DID change. The fact that these Anthologies have been released, albeit all these years later, does mean that people are more accepting, and can see THE BIG PICTURE. I just like to think that I am amazed that both can cover the whole gamut of musiacl styles, and I enjoy them all. Mind you, Barbara McNair naked spread in PLAYBOY back in those days, WAS dare I say It,DARING!!!

[motown01]

'The Answer Is Love' is an excellent song - as well as 'The Love Line'.

[marymary]

Mr B's fate at Motown was similar to that suffered by Barbara McNair - as a "prestige" crossover signing, he was only given the dullest MOR slop to record. Unlike McNair, there doesn't seem to be a secret cache of him doing stronger material; nearly all his Motown records are in the same bag, standards and dreary ballads, very jarring when placed right next to storming mid-Sixties Motown hits.

Ironically, he'd recorded a fair few listenable records in the Forties, when his career as a bandleader made him one of the biggest names in bebop and an unlikely influence on the future of jazz [[Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Art Blakey and Dexter Gordon all spent time cutting their teeth in his band, for instance, along with a young Miles Davis no less), and while many of his vocal ballads and renditions of standards are pretty unappealing today, there was a time when they couldn't be got onto record store shelves fast enough - and as a genuine million-selling black artist, Eckstine's star wattage was very important in smashing down a few racial barriers in the music and showbiz industries.

Mr B's Motown tenure was probably more about the prestige and symbolism of having him signed to the label than an expectation that he'd sell millions of records again; most of his Motown stuff I find a struggle to listen to, to be honest.

Except one.



Which [[a) rocks my world, and [[b) is enough, frankly, to excuse a HUNDRED tedious crooner standards.

Thank you for posting that song! I have heard a number of Eckstein's tracks and most of struck me as uninspired but I Wonder Why Nobody Loves Me ranks as one of my favorite Motown songs period. Was it written by anyone in particular, or just the same person who penned the rest of his tracks happened to strike gold with that one?

[reese]

The only Motown release of his that I've heard is THE ANSWER IS LOVE, which I think might have been written by Smokey? It had a nice little bounce to it, and a good vocal. The only reason I even heard it because they included it as the final track on SOUL SUPREME VOL.2, a compilation put out by the Longines Symphonette Society back in the 70s. From time to time, I see some of his Motown albums in used record shops, and I'll get tempted. But I haven't succumbed.

I did buy his Stax / Enterprise album SENIOR SOUL, but I havent' gotten around to actually playing it.

[midnightman]

Billy Eckstine is definitely a pioneer in entertainment. He had a fine voice and was quite one handsome, dapper fellow too. There's a good picture of Billy & Marvin outside the offices of JET from around 1983. Billy was one of Marvin's idols.